Fabulous or Not?

Eating Right Kids: Safeway makes healthy foods for kids

If you are parent who packs their child's lunch everyday, I'm sure you often wonder what parts they actually eat, what they trade away and what gets trashed and wasted.  I certainly remember begging friends for a fruit roll-up or a sandwich that looked tastier than what my mother had packed for me.

There just might be a good solution to your concerns available at a grocery store neat you!  Eating Right Kids is a new initiative between Safeway and Warner Bros. to provide healthy options for kids at lunch, snack time and on the go.  

 Eating Right Kids features bottled juices that my son and I love, and some tasty fruit cups, snacks and cereals too.  The Spaghetti-O's-like Pasta Rings with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce is made with Whole Wheat and contains 10 grams of protein per serving, 20 if you eat the whole microwavable container, which is simple enough for an older child to prepare by themselves once parents are comfortable allowing the kid to use the microwave.  I'm a big fan of the fruit and vegetable snack packs available in the Produce section.  Apples with Cinnamon Dip, Celery with Peanut Butter and Grapes with Cheese are just a few of the options available.  If we want our kids to consume healthy foods and teach them good habits for life, this line of products is a good place to start.  

Warner Bros Consumer Products is now partnered with Safeway to offer a healthy eating solution targeted at kids featuring Looney Tunes characters.   There are more than 60 items across many categories including produce, breakfast foods, dairy, snacks, including chewy granola bars and frozen entrees.   Eating Right Kids is available at over 1700 Safeway stores throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Eating Right Kids is an offshoot of Safeway's already in existence Eating Right line targeted at adults.  Eating Right Kids was highlighted by the Federal Trade Commission for its ability to positively impact the childhood obesity crisis in America.

The Looney Tunes characters make snazzy packaging that appeals to kids. 

I'm glad to see a collaborative attempt between various kid-friendly outlets and food manufacturers to encourage better health habits among the younger generation.   I hope to see much more of this in the coming years.  Cheers to Safeway and Eating Right Kids and Warner Bros. Looney Tunes for partnering for this important initiative.

You can learn more about Safeway's Eating Right Kids by clicking here.

Book Review: Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind

Once again, Phillip Done goes directly to the head of the class with his latest year-long memoir about teaching third graders.  A veteran teacher with over twenty years of experience in the classroom understands children on a level unparalleled by most.  A heart-warming, hilarious and touching book, it should be required reading for all new teachers and parents. 

Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind  takes the reader back to the elementary classroom, complete with bulletin boards covered in colored paper and scalloped borders to the mysteries of what kids keep and lose in their desks to the wonders of recess and spelling errors -- be careful when you spell o-r-g-a-n-i-s-m, he reminds little Melanie, the N and the I are very important. 

I relived my own elementary days, my favorite teachers, the special dress-up days, picture day when they handed out those little combs!, the celebrations of half-birthdays and lost teeth.  I laughed out loud about spelling errors!  (Don't read that chapter in bed while your husband is sleeping!) Done writes so glowingly and magically of his experiences with children that it makes me jealous that I won't experience all those crazy, annoying, special, and priceless moments with my own children -- but, those moments are meant for teachers, they are not meant for parents.  Perhaps I need to go back and get a Masters in Education and become a teacher? Done is clearly a master teacher and this books shows he is also a master of the written word.

I think one of the many things that makes Done so successful as a teacher and a writer is that he is fully invested and committed to his work. In a world where you often hear more negative than positive this is a refreshing read, it makes you believe in teachers, our American school system, the wonder and joy of third grade and it makes you believe that with teachers like Phillip Done, every kid does have a chance at a lifetime of success. 

I wish every kid at least one Mr. Done in their school years.  Done, it rhymes with Phone.

This book is available from Amazon.com

Click here to read more about Phillip Done and his first book, 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny.